


Northern secret

by Rogercat



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Babysitting, Bad Parenting, Bad Romance, Childhood, Class Differences, Drama, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Family Drama, Formenos, Gen, Grandparents & Grandchildren, Growing Up, Hunters & Hunting, Other, Secret Relationship, Strained Relationships, Unhealthy Relationships, Valinor, emotionally immature Beren, not for Luthien and Beren fans, spoiled Luthien
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23565001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogercat/pseuds/Rogercat
Summary: When Dior is born to a set of young, unmarried parents with very unrealistic expectations of life, his grandmother Emeldir and some other people from Formenos takes over the task of raising him(alternative version of my modern AU story called To Move North)
Relationships: Beren Erchamion & Emeldir, Beren Erchamion & Lúthien Tinúviel, Celegorm & Dior, Celegorm | Turcafinwë & Oromë, Elu Thingol | Elwë Singollo & Lúthien Tinúviel, Fëanor | Curufinwë & Fingolfin | Ñolofinwë, Fëanor | Curufinwë & Sons of Fëanor, Fëanor | Curufinwë/Nerdanel, Nerdanel & Sons of Fëanor
Comments: 12
Kudos: 23





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Terbus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terbus/gifts).



Late June of year 1984, northern Valinor, the city of Formenos: 

Emeldir Ladros had just returned home from another pleasant day of work at the local museum where she worked as a historian with the history of Formenos as her speciality, intending to start her vacation tomorrow. As a widow since fourteen years ago, whose only child had moved out three years ago, her workplace and coworkers played a important role in her life outside friends that she would meet for a chat at times. 

“Somehow I have a bad feeling this evening, as if there is some form of calm before a massive storm…”

The weather outside were fine, yet she could not help feeling like how it had been once before, on the day when Barahir had been so injured by that bomb while on duty in the East, despite that she truly had no idea to explain why she felt terrified all suddenly. Then again, only a fool would dismiss the power of the spiritual world here in the northern part of Valinor, for everyone living here in Formenos knew that some things could not be explained by logic or science. 

“Ugh, I am only giving myself a headache by worrying. Better start dinner and then enjoying a nice spa bath to relax before bed.” 

Kissing two of her fingertips, she then used them to place a kiss on the family photo with the seven-year-old Beren held in her arms and herself standing beside Barahir in his military uniform, taken only weeks before everything changed for them. 

“I hope that Beren have not done anything lately to make you cry in despair over whatever he is doing, honey. After all, if you are around him as a unseen ghost, perhaps you might be able to scare him into stop being foolish.”

Emeldir had felt her late husband's presence faintly this morning as she made herself ready for work, as if he wanted to give her a greeting from the other side. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

It was after that spa bath in the bathroom, with a glass of alcohol-free apple cider and some fresh strawberries as a treat for herself for not having to work for the next four weeks, as Emedir watched the weather rapport in the hope of that some sunny weather would allow her to keep the full day out in the garden tomorrow. But suddenly a live-sent news interrupted the program: 

“ _ A shooting with guns has happened at the concert with Luthien Tinuviel as the target for a attempted kidnapping. A reported stalker of hers managed to get behind the stage, and wounded one of the staff members when he tried to protect her from the man. _ ” 

Emeldir made a face at hearing the name. Not that idol singer daughter and heiress to the fashion company Doriath Beauty again! As a protester against modern clothing industry, where the clothes were made in a different part of the world and then shipped across half the world to be sold in clothes stories instead of having them be made by local workers in the same country to create available jobs for those living on the threshold of poverty, she had a huge thorn in the side of the modern fashion industry. Doriath Beauty, owned by the wealthy businessman Thingol Greymantle, was one of those huge fashion companies Emeldir often targeted in her protests. 

“What, exactly, is wrong by being able to make your own clothes from scratch? Buying fabric made by a local weaver and sew the clothes at home, or give a job to a local seamstress or tailor, worked perfectly for our ancestors!” 

No, this ruined her mood, not only personally but as a historian. She picked up the remote control to switch to another channel, where nature documentaries used to appear at this time of night. Right as the new channel arrived on the tv screen and she would take a new strawberry in her mouth, did the wall-mounted phone ring. 

“It better be Simin asking if we can eat lunch together at her house…!” 

Emeldir and her Easterling neighbor lady were roughly the same age, both widowed with only a son as result of the marriage, and neither one choosing to remarry when the mourning period had passed, instead becoming single mothers who worked and raising their sole child without help of family, Simin because she had no relatives joining her and her son into emigrate to Valinor, while Emeldir had a very strained relationship to her parents and siblings. 

“You are talking with Emeldir Ladros.” 

Thankfully, it was Simin who just wanted to tell Emeldir that her son had not been anywhere close to the concert despite that he currently were in Menegoth City as well. 

“ _ He did complain about hearing the fans being noisy from the city park where the concert is being held, though, because it is only one city block away from where he rents that small apartment during his education to a bodyguard at that private company. _ ” 

Emeldir felt sorry for the young man, who was in the same age as Beren. 

“Tell him my sympathy because he probably will not get to get much sleep last night, first because of all the sounds from the concert, and now the police working to find out what really happened behind the scene.”

Simin thanked her, and promised to share a tasty lamb stew at lunch tomorrow at her house. If the weather were good enough, they might even be able to sit outside in the garden to eat. 

“Right, did you not mention something about that you might become a grandmother soon, Emeldir?” 

She smiled at the reminder, looking at the ultrasound image next to one of Barahir on the hearth. 

“I think he want to surprise me with his girlfriend this summer, since he have not mentioned her name or anything else.” 

Hopefully, her son had actually matured enough to take responsibility. At least not denying the chance of that he could be the father of a unborn child he had sired on someone. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

However, two weeks later, in the middle of a somehow matching summer storm, Emeldir got one of the most shocking phone calls of her life: 

Beren was the one who had been shot by the stalker. Her son survived after spending some critical time in the hospital, and during that period, a really distasteful secret had been revealed thanks to her son being careless with a small note he had in his pocket. 

A pair of train tickets, set for the the weekend after the concert, and a name that he really should not be familiar with in any kind of manner outside those weekly newspapers about famous people: 

Luthien Tinuviel. 

And the most horrifying news that she could hardly believe the other voice on the phone to say: 

That Beren actually was the secret lover of Luthien Greymantle, and that the heiress to Doriath Beauty were  **_pregnant._ ** Out of wedlock, with no official boyfriend that could be claimed as the father instead of Beren. At four months, she had passed the safe time of making a abort, making it very possible that Luthien now would be hidden from the view of the media for the coming months, claiming the trauma of nearly being shot at the concert as the main reason, and that the child would be adopted straight after birth in order to avoid a scandal. 

Unless Beren and his family were willing to take the child directly after birth, and never come in contact with the Greymantle family again so one would know what had happened between Beren and Luthien. 

“Roughy at which date will my  **_grandson_ ** be born in November?”

Emeldir would not allow her first grandchild to become the innocent victim of this massive, unbelievable stupidity her son had caused, all because he and Luthien kept thinking that they shared some fairy-tale romance story where everyone was against their “true love” and that the best the solution to the whole problem was to elope to northern Valinor before her pregnancy became impossible to hide. 


	2. Family meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emeldir get to meet her newborn grandson

On the morning of 8th November, Emeldir was nervous for more than one reason. She had arrived to Menegroth City by train from Formenos two days ago, at getting a phone call at home that the birth would likely start within the coming 72 hours. Someone had even been kind enough to book a hotel room for her before her arrival, and Emeldir suspected it must be Khamûl, Simin's son since he was familiar not only with her son, but had a work somewhere in the modern city as well. 

“Well, Beren will not be able to escape the scolding I am going to give him for causing this sort of situation.”

She was happy to become a grandmother, but was it really selfish of her to wish that it could happen under significantly happier circumstances? 

  
  


Once she had been eating breakfast in the hotel's dining room, her suspicion was confirmed when Khamûl did indeed arrive in company with a man who was only a few years older, but whose attire and the symbol on his briefcase revealed that he was probably the boss of the company whose bodyguards had been hired by Thingol Greymantle for keeping his foolish daughter hidden from the media now during her pregnancy. 

“Mrs Emeldir Ladros? I am Sauron Barad-dûr, the owner and founder of Minas Morgul training of professional bodyguards, as well the current Security Manager for the Greymantle family. It was thanks to Khamûl that we managed to find a alternative way to that the boy would be given away for adoption straight after birth.”

That information did not surprise her. Khamûl would have been able tell her name and home address since his own mother lived just next door, and knowing that unlike Beren who had failed one of the major school subjects in Formenos high school required for approved final grades, Emeldir would be familiar with babies despite that she only had one child. 

“So my grandson was born a few hours ago?” 

“Yes. Luthien were allowed to stay long enough to sign the name on the birth register and get some help to pump out colostrum to have in a baby bottle, but she was not allowed to hold the baby before Thingol more or less dragged her out from the birth center.”

Being a mother herself, Emeldir felt some pity for Luthien over that she were not allowed to bond with her son before he was taken away from the room where she had given birth, but given the whole situation, perhaps it was for the better. If this had happen just a century earlier, Luthien could have found herself kicked out of her family out on the streets for the baby not being sired by a husband or betrothed, or alternatively be forced into a undesirable marriage to save the family's reputation before it became clear that she was not a virgin anymore. In a worst scenario, the baby would be abandoned at the steps of a orphanage or even killed if the relatives were desperate enough to hide the shame over the pregnancy. 

“The Ladros family may be descendants of the royal House of Bëor, but in term of class, we are commoners nowadays and with the Greymantle family being a nouveau rich family, neither Luthien or Beren would be familiar with the lifestyle of the other…” she thought for herself. Thanks to her work within history, Emeldir was able to list many historical couples whose marriages had fallen precisely because of the simple reason that they had different social origins. Without any doubt, her own son would be added to that list if he had managed to elope with Luthien and marry her before they were found. 

“This is the full terms of the solution that I have managed to fix by acting as the go-between for you and Thingol, mylady:  **_Your grandson shall be raised by you and Beren, his paternal family, in Formenos and not know the identity of his birth mother until adulthood at eighteen the earliest, and it is for his own best that Beren is not trying to contact Luthien again after this._ ** Do you accept or have you something to add?” 

Looking over the papers, Emeldir saw that Thingol had paid for the hospital bill which covered the injuries Beren had got at the shooting, but as the owner of Doriath Beauty had added in his own handwriting, it was only because Beren had prevented Luthien from being shot or even kidnapped at the concert, not out of any benevolence towards the man who had knocked up his daughter. 

“A bribe, I guess, for our silence about who the mother is?” Emeldir wondered at finding a cheque with no less than half a million written down between the papers.

“Or Luthien fearing that her baby will be brought up in a such poor family that they can not afford education for him past primary education. She is...not very familiar with how life can be for people outside her social group, and sadly have some of that idiotic 19th standards of behavior that still is taught in some of the families her parents hangs around with. Her naive belief that Beren is her true love simply because he is the father of her child, speaks a lot of that she have not been allowed become a mature, independent woman instead of remaining the  _ coddled little princess  _ for her parents.” 

There was a strange manner, in which Sauron spoke some of the last words with a very restrained bitterness, undoubtedly feeling like he was stuck as a babysitter who had to clean up this mess his boss's daughter found herself into. 

“I have a well-paid job, and I will bring in some local contacts in Formenos to ensure that Beren will not be able to escape job interviews. I will not have a unemployed son in the house when he can contribute to the household budget by some form of work.” 

Beren was healthy in both body and mind, Emeldir knew that from his life so far, and with Formenos having around a thousand residents who lived there year-round, he would not be able to blame a lack of possible jobs as a reason why he could not make money. No, her most difficult task would be to keep her own parents from interfere into the new situation, Beren had always been spoiled by his maternal grandparents because they never understood that Emeldir actually was unable to have a second child for fertility problems, or that she actually preferred to make a career to earn her own money instead of remarrying to become a housewife while her new husband was the breadwinner and she did not doubt that they would think that it was  _ her _ who had scared away the mother of her own grandchild for whatever crazy reason related to either Emeldir's work or personality her parents could imagine!

“Shall we get your boys, mylady?”

At least Sauron proved far better manners than what Thingol Greymantle would do if they were to meet face by face. 

“Yes, please, just let me get my two bags and the bassinet I brought along.” 

She had packed the second bag for her grandson, with baby clothes, some empty milk bottles and a package of disposable diapers for newborns. Personally Emeldir would have preferred old-fashioned cloth diapers, but they would not be the best ones on a long train journey because she would be able to wash them, so once she arrived back home to Formenos, that would be what she had for her grandson. For that same reason, she had brought along infant formula to feed the baby on the train, while in Formenos he would be able to feed on breast milk donated to the local milk bank by other nursing mothers in the town. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Since Khamûl drove a rented car in order to bring Beren to the train station and waiting on her there, Sauron escorted Emeldir to the birth center in a different city block. 

Finally they were at the birth center, and Emeldir could meet her grandson in a private room where the newborns would be picked up by employees from an adoption agency or foster care if they would not stay with their birth families. He was as anonymous as any newborn could be, with the baby blue eyes that would settle into his actually eye colour in a few months, but she spotted at once a proof of some resemblance to his paternal family: 

“Oh, you inherited grandpa Barahir's hair color and nose, how lovely!”

Holding him close to her chest while sitting down in a comfortable chair so he would grow a little more used to her scent, Emeldir took the chance to also look over the birth register: 

“ _ Dior _ as a given name? As in the old royal title from the south? That better not be a result of Beren mentioning his lineage for that girl, I hope.”

Emeldir had to wonder why her grandson had been named in a such manner that seriously was making her question his birth mother's logic in names for a child. Because of her own sheltered upbringing, had Luthien failed to realize the more ill-favored meaning and risk of overwhelming expectations of a such name? As a historian, Emeldir knew that names could be interpreted very differently in the past and present. The given name of her grandson, for example, had once been a royal title in the nowadays long-gone southern kingdom of Valmar which had been known as governed under very religious terms, often given to the intended successor to the reigning Priest-King as a marking of believing that person worthy of being the next one. 

At least Luthien had not been able to write down a second name or surname on the birth register before her parents had taken her back home to their house, and doubting that Beren even had been thinking of baby names, Emeldir picked up the pen to fill in the rest of the names: 

**_Dior Barahir Ladros_ ** __

It was perfectly normal that parents sometimes added the names of the father or a grandfather as a second name, and there was no way that Emeldir would write down  _ Grey  _ as the surname on Dior, because historically, that surname had often signaled that the carrier was a illegitimate child between a person of high social rank and a commoner. 

“Yes, sweetie, you are eating well.”

When Dior started to whimper because he felt his first feelings of hunger, Emeldir gave him carefully heated-up the milk bottle with colostrum so he would get the needed antibodies for his immune system. The long-distance train with Formenos as end station would not leave until late afternoon, so she had a few more hours to bond with Dior in a quiet environment. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I imagine that Formenos high school have a obligatory class of helping out at the town daycares and preschools, ad well babysitting for adults with infants, for their high school students, as a way to teach the teenagers that if they do not use protection during sex or chose a abortion, they will likely end up as teen parents which will affect their future such as delayed education, not having a job that will bring a income or be mature enough to care for the baby. Basically a attempt on “this is what awaits if you do not take responsibility” from the school to the teenagers as part of the sexual education
> 
> In canon, Dior's name actually means "successor" in Doriathrin, the branch of Sindarin spoken in Doriath. So with Emeldir being a historian, I could play with the idea of that his given name could actually have been a historical title of some sort and that it is very unusual to have as a given name


	3. Hunter and helper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone visits the Ladros family

24th November, Formenos: 

The hunting season in Formenos tended to finish once the snow arrived for the winter. Slipping on ice and risk to injury yourself were never fun, and it was not very pleasant to be out a whole day in chilly temperature despite dressing up in warm clothes, with snow and cold winds that was below zero Celsius. 

Therefore, even as a professional hunter, Celegorm had a different job during winter season in order to earn some extra money, by helping out as a food delivery service provider to those people in Formenos who may not be able to personally drive or walk all the way to the grocery store due to illness, injury or old age. 

“It is a bit sad that Mimi and I only got two years together, but she was already old when I got her.” 

Mimi had been a gift from Oromë for becoming one of the professional hunters in Formenos after graduating from Lake-town hunting college further south in Valinor, as well that the old dam had also needed a new home due to not getting along with a new puppy Oromë had brought that year, because Mimi had been spayed at a early age and only found the very energetic newcomer a big annoyance. And since she had known Celegorm for many years, the two hunters had agreed that she could become his starting dog as a hunting partner because Oromë and Vána felt that one of the two dogs had to get a new family or there would be no peace at all in their home. Sadly this summer Mimi had needed to be put to sleep because of the loss of hearing she had gotten alongside joint problems, so he wanted to get enough money to buy a new puppy that could become a new hunting partner to next hunting season. 

“Next one to deliver food service to, is...oh, mrs Emeldir Ladros? With a added request to drive to the hospital and bring bags of frozen breast milk from the human milk bank there.”

It had been very hard to not hear about what Beren Ladros had done. Not all the details were known, but since she had arrived at the train station fourteen days ago with a baby bag in which her newborn grandson was sleeping and her very sullen son alongside the son of her Easterling neighbor, and with no possible mother in sight, the newest theory about the situation in the Ladros family was that the mother of her grandson must have broken up with Beren shortly before the birth, or needed to stay at the hospital for medicinal reasons. 

“Right, better fix her order and the breast milk quickly. Can not have a such small human starve because the milk is all used up, would be mean if it soon is his normal feeding time and there is no milk arriving yet.”

Celegorm recalled how his now two-year-old nephew Celebrimbor had needed some donated breast milk for a couple of days when Curufin's wife Astarë had suffered a infection some weeks after her delivery and the doctors had told her to not nurse in fear of that the infection would be transferred to her son though the breast milk. Thankfully Astarë did recover quickly thanks to taking a few spoonfuls of honey each day as a natural antibiotic. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

It was Emeldir who opened the door when Celegorm rang the bell. 

“Nice to see you, Celegorm. Would you like a coffee to reheat yourself before the next delivery?”

“Would be much appreciated, thank you.”

While Celegorm was two years older than Beren and thus had not been a classmate of him in school, he had sometimes been in this area of Formenos to help the local Wildlife Aid Center to rescue trapped wildlife, often animal babies who explored the world outside the den without realizing that sometimes there was danger around humans. 

  
  


Dior was peacefully sleeping in the bassinet out in the living room, so the two adults could enjoy the coffee in the sofa without worrying for that he would be hungry. Beren was currently out on job hunting in Formenos after that his mother had given him several job ads cut out from the newspaper and almost literally kicked her son out of the house after his complaints about that she expected him to pay rent to her unless he found a place to call his own home. 

“It is a little hard to see, but somehow his cheekbones seems rather... **_refined_ ** for a such wee human cub.” 

Celegorm did not know about it, of course, but Dior had indeed inherited some of the beauty from Luthien, that would turn into a more androgynous look on him once he grew older. But right now, most of that were hidden because he was so small and pretty much looking like any other baby at that age. 

“If his mother were a dog, she would be a purebred Greyhound,” Emeldir responded, for that was the mental image of what she imagined, and with Celegorm being a hunter that used dogs in his work, that could give him a better detail. 

“Poor cub, but mixed-breeds are often far more healthy than purebreds because the new blood saves them from inherited health issues.” 

  
  


Nearly a hour later Dior woke up, but the whimper he let out were not that he made when hungry, but rather demanding some attention. Much to his surprise, Celegorm found himself being the one to entertain temporary the baby while Emeldir prepared the milk bottle with the donated breast milk. 

“Hi there, little one. You are not that big for your age, do you know that? A little bird,” Celegorm spoke softly as the baby blue eyes widened in surprise over this new, unfamiliar voice. But the silver-blond hunter knew how to act around such small children, his twin brothers Amrod and Amras were nine years younger than himself so together with that Celebrimbor had been born two years ago, Celegorm did recall how they could react to unfamiliar voices. 

“I hope that your dad is around you somewhat and talking, or you will never grow used to the deeper voices of us men.” 

By holding Dior face to face with one hand under the little head and neck, and the other hand under the bottom, Celegorm lifted him up carefully. The boy was too little to be able to focus properly with his eyes, but there was nothing wrong with his hearing. 

“ _ Neh! _ ” Dior raised his voice somewhat into almost a shriek, not out of fear for Celegorm now but rather to tell his grandmother that he was hungry now, not finding the stranger interesting anymore. 

“Yes, sweetie, I know, it is time for your milk,” Emeldir commented gently after coming with the milk bottle which she had heated to body temperature in warm water. Carefully sitting down in the sofa, Celegorm handed over Dior to her so he could feed from the bottle. 

“Thank you for the coffee, Emeldir, it was nice seeing your grandson. If you have a need of a babysitter over a few hours during winter to early spring because both you and Beren are needed at work, just call me.” 

Dior stopped sucking for a moment at the sound of Celegorm raising from the sofa, but then returned to the feeding when he was no longer distracted. 

“You are welcome to babysit Dior, I can not always trust that Shimin can adjust her own work hours for that.”

The Easterling widow next door loved children, but even she needed to work so she had a income. With a smile as he dressed into his winter clothing again, Celegorm bid them goodbye before opening the front door. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Meanwhile, Beren were not having a such good day. One of the major problems with Formenos, from how he saw it, was that nearly all the suggested jobs were here in the local area, either in the town itself or on the farms outside. After spending two years in Menegroth City and working in one of the city parks as a member of the security team, for all of that most of his tasks had been to clean up trash every morning and evening when it was less people out in the parks, Formenos really came off as a backwater place. 

“I should have told my grandparents to help me buy a secluded house in the outskirts of Nargothrond so I could bring Luthien there…” 

So much had gone wrong, thanks to that idiot at the concert who had turned up with the gun and tried to force Luthien to come with him. Because of that he had been shot when shielding her, Beren had seen all their plans to elope and start a family together go up in smoke. He had hoped to outsmart Thingol Greymantle by stealing away his daughter under the businessman's nose when he and Melian were away the weekend after the concert, only for that man Sauron to ruin it by asking Beren some very simple, hard-to-escape questions when a hospital nurse had found the note and train tickets in his jacket pocket.

Now he found himself basically exiled back to the north of Valinor, back in the same situation as he once had started in two years ago after finishing high school and not wanting to keep studying at college. Only that now he had not only his mother to deal with, that damned brat had been dumped on him with no way to wriggle himself out of the trap as a single parenthood meant. 

“Why is it so hard for mother to at least show some sympathy for my situation?!”

However, in his wounded pride and resentment of the whole situation, Beren failed to realize that Emeldir had a very good reason to be displeased with his behavior with Dior: His immature personality for his age, which he had managed to hide from Luthien thanks to them not being able to meet very often both because of her career as a idol singer and his own work scheme, and refusal to take proper responsibility for his little son now when the boy was a infant, could lead to him becoming a neglectful father to Dior with time if he did not sharpened up quickly, and Emeldir feared that this, together with how her own parents tended to dote on Beren when he was a child and giving in to his demands despite her protests about it, would result in long-term damage in their family relationships. 

  
  
  


At the end of the day, Beren knew that he and Emeldir was going to have a argument again over dinner. All the other jobs in the town of Formenos had already been taken by others when he arrived to the workplaces, so he ended up with one part-time job that was rather low-income in contrast to how much Emeldir earned from her work as historian at the local museum. 

“Dishwasher at one of the local restaurants...great, she is going to demand a lot of my salary in rent for living in what is my own childhood room and other things for that brat…”

No, this day had really not gone well for Beren, starting with him not getting a good night's sleep because of Dior loudly crying either out of hunger or needing to get his diaper changed, and then after breakfast Emeldir had ordered him out of the house on job searching. Now after a day out, he knew that it would not be better by the evening. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as he is a professional hunter in this modern AU, I think it would be logical if Celegorm graduated from a college that is specializing in various terms of modern hunting, and why not have Lake-town as a hunting college?
> 
> Celegorm is meant to be 23 in 1984, so that makes him born in 1961 before Caranthir joined the family only little over a year later in 1962 and since I imagine that Fëanor and Nerdanel had a surprise pregnancy with the twins six years after Curufin's birth in 1963, same year as Beren, that would make Amrod and Amras born in 1970. Maedhros is born in 1955 just before both his parents had their respective 19th birthday, and Maglor is born in 1958.


	4. Babysitting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Celegorm acts as a babysitter for Dior

Since Emeldir wanted her grandson to get used to Celegorm in case he needed to act as a babysitter at some point, she invited him to come nearly every day when Beren was at work. It also helped Dior to get used to someone else than his grandmother, as his father did not seem that interested in bonding with his young child. Of course, it could be that Beren still was resentful over that he had not managed to elope with Luthien before they were found out, but ignoring Dior, who was innocent in the whole thing, was actually not promising for his rather lacking parenting skills, not since Emeldir had became the main caretaker for her grandson so far. 

“One of the main reasons to why I hated Beren growing up without siblings and how I was unable to get pregnant again...he is used to all the attention he got as the “poor, fatherless” grandchild my parents doted on as he grew up and is not used to how much work a actual, living baby demands from the parents or caretaker…” Emeldir admitted once, when Dior actually had fallen asleep against Celegorm's chest as a sign of feeling safe with him. 

“I feel your grief over that. Curufin could come home from high school and complain about your son failing to show up to a house where he was the designed babysitter, and flat out refusing sometimes to show up in lessons in that compulsory class on the importance of using contraception and the reality that awaits those who do not realize how becoming parents already in their adolescence affects their entire lives.” 

At least his own parents, Fëanor and Nerdanel, had been 18 years old at their wedding and realised the reality that awaited them when she expected his oldest brother Maedhros not even two months afterwards, even if they had not planned to end up with seven children in total. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

On the morning of December the 2th, Celegorm got a phone call from Emeldir: 

“Beren brought home a cold that he caught from someone else on his work and you have caught it too? Aw, that is horrible...oh dear…”

On top of them both being stuck by a really nasty case of common cold, Simin was unable to help due to her and her son Khamûl being in the south for a big group meeting with fellow followers in the faith of Mahal, something about trying to stay connected with their homelands. 

And since Emeldir was estranged from her parents and siblings, she could not ask any relatives for help. 

“I am coming over as soon as possible to bring him over to my cottage, can you try dress Dior and pack what he needs for a few days?”

Just in case, he called Curufin and explained the situation, that he needed to borrow the old rearward facing car seat for infants and some of the two-year-old Celebrimbor's old baby clothes to have something extra to dress Dior in, because babies tended to do a mess for various natural reasons and it was the winter season after all, it couldn't hurt to have a extra layer to dress him in, if Celegorm was taking him out for a outside walk in the baby carriage. 

  
  


With Beren still in bed, it was Emeldir who opened the front door. She had tied a scarf over the lower half of her face to avoid coughing on Celegorm, but he could see in her eyes that she was having a fever. 

“Here, bring him out of here before the cold catches him in its claws as well, please! Dior, be a sweet boy and behave while you are staying with Celegorm, alright? I will come and bring you home again as soon as I am free from the cold.” 

Her grandson was asleep for now in the bassinet, which was only well as Celegorm brought said baby, filled diaper bag, all the unused donated milk with belonging bottles and a small bag with baby clothes over to his car and he checked twice to ensure that Dior was fastened properly in the rearward facing infant seat. Of course, Dior was not that used to car travel because infants in his age generally was kept at home during the first weeks of life outside the world, and began to cry loudly when Celegorm started. 

“Sorry, kid. I will try and drive home quickly so you will not have to listen on the car engine,” the hunter apologized, gently touching the pacifier a little so Dior began to suck on it for comfort instead of screaming. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Thankfully, he only needed to drive for ten minutes to arrive home to his home part of Formenos. The footprints in the snow came from the hedge between his cottage and the one Curufin lived in with his family, so it was probably his brother who had left some of the old baby clothes and some other things he needed for such a small guest.

“There, there, Dior, we are going inside to the warmth now.” 

On the tv table in front of his, laid a card from his family members:

_ Welcome to a few days of sleepover at Celegorm, sweet Dior _

Even if Dior was unable to read now, Celegorm still found it nice that they had made a welcome card. 

“Right, let us see what your grandmother wrote down what you are used to.” 

Checking the list he had gotten, and a look on the wall clock, revealed that there was a reason for that Dior was being fussy. It was nearly time for a forenoon feeding. 

“A quick diaper check to see if you needs to be changed, first and some warm milk should be welcomed, indeed.” 

While Nerdanel had nursed all her children, Celegorm recalled that Amrod and Amras had needed some extra portions of baby formula to ensure that they got enough food and not risking that one of them ended up starving. Placing Dior on a spread out baby blanket on the wool carpet for warmth while he fixed the milk bottle, Celegorm then used the help of his tea maker and some cold water from the tap to make lukewarm water to warm the bottle in. 

“37 C in temperature, perfect.” 

Although Dior was fussy from being in a unfamiliar place, being placed in Celegorm's arms while the hunter sat down in the couch and getting the familiar stroke over a cheek that signaled food time, seemed to help. 

  
  


After the feeding and changing Dior's cloth diaper to a clean one, Celegorm put on a music record with sounds from the wild nature in the forest during spring and summer when there was a lot of animals there in the woods. Many people found the soundtrack soothing, so perhaps it would do the same for Dior.

“As a fellow native of Formenos here in northern Valinor, I think it is perfectly logical for you to learn about mother nature from a young age. I could spend the whole day telling you stories about people with no common sense and how that often ends in Himring, the national park over here.” 

Of course, Dior had fallen asleep, but Celegorm took the chance for a nap as well, mainly because he knew that later at night, it would not be much sleep.

  
  


Over the following days, Celegorm got a taste of how it was to be a full time caretaker of a such small human. But he did not complain, knowing that while it was only a few days for him until that Emeldir and Beren no longer had the cold, while actual parents would not be able to get a break. 

“Well, if our ancestors could survive this without any modern conveniences, then I would be a poor descendant of them if I am giving up after just a few days of babysitting. But it still proves why I am not interested in having biological children, I finds school-aged children and aged upwards to be easier to deal with.” 

Right now Celegorm was reading from one of his favorite facts books about animals from his own childhood for Dior, because he knew that talking a lot to babies would encourage them to try baby talk eventually. 

“Eairh!” Dior suddenly half-cried from his arm, the fidgeting movements also signaling what was wrong.

“Oh, you got some troublesome gas? We better get you some nice massage then so you do not get too uncomfortable.” 

Getting a gentle massage on his belly was something that usually calmed Dior, and it was soon time for a afternoon nap as well. At lunchtime today, Emeldir had called and told Celegorm that she had almost recovered from the cold, so hopefully Dior would be able to return home to his family soon. Which was promising in itself, because a lot of the crying over the past days was caused by Dior missing his grandmother and being upset about not seeing her. 


End file.
